Achieve More By Doing Less
4 strategies to help you succeed as a new leader
If you’ve recently been promoted and are now managing more people, congratulations! It’s a big achievement and you should be proud. But, you should also beware… roughly 60% of new managers fail in the first 2 years, and one report states that nearly one-third of new managers leave in the first month! (sources: Gartner, ADP)
Having been a leader and manager for over 15 years, I’m not surprised by this. The transition from solo contributor to a team lead is one of the hardest transitions most people make in their careers because you're now not only focused on your own success, but for the first time you're also responsible for the success of your team and your company. So your responsibilities have likely doubled (or even tripled), causing you to over-burn and give 200% most days.
But you and I both know this isn’t sustainable. The only way to succeed as a new leader is by learning to let go and do less so you can focus on the important things that only you can do. Things like developing strategy, coming up with innovative ideas, problem solving, team development, attending high-level meetings, etc. All of these things require energy and time, and you CAN get that without giving up your personal time. Here are four strategies to help you do less right away…
1 - Let go of the belief that you need to have all the answers
As a leader, it might seem like you should immediately know how to do your new job because they promoted you for it. But they most likely promoted you because of your technical skills and expertise, not your managerial skills. So give yourself some slack… you’re not expected to know everything or be able to do everything on day one. Instead, effective leaders use the collective strength and knowledge of their team and the people they work with to build their capability and succeed.
Here are a few examples:
As you move into your new role, you might feel pressure to optimize things right away. Instead of coming up with solutions on your own, get input from your team first. They may have really strong suggestions that you can build upon. It’ll also make them feel like their opinion matters to you.
When your team has questions or comes to you with problems to solve, encourage them to come up with the answers first and run them by you for feedback. This helps strengthen their problem solving skills and saves you some time.
If you’re given a new project and have questions, ask a peer or your boss for help. Not only will it save you time, but asking questions also shows that you’re engaged and that you care about doing well. So don’t be shy.
Seek out training, mentors or coaching. The transition to being a manager is a difficult one, so find some resources that can help you seamlessly transition in the first few months.
2 - Let go of doing it all on your own
This is an obvious one, but you need to give more projects and responsibilities to your team to free up your time and give them a chance to learn and grow. When you let go, make sure to:
Set clear expectations on what you want the team to deliver and when. Clear is kind, and it’ll save you a lot of stress in the future.
Train on how to do it well, but be open to letting them do it their own way if it gets similar results. This gives your team a little more autonomy and can help them feel more empowered. They may also come up with more innovative ways to get things done which is a win-win.
Leverage the skills and interests of the individuals on your team. E.g. If someone on your team loves building beautiful powerpoint slides and you hate it, ask them to help you design the slides after you fill in the content.
Also, remember that you can delegate “up” to your boss and ask if they can help you with something. At the very least, your boss might be able to find you additional resources or extend your deadline.
3 - Let go of always being accessible
This one is critical. When you start managing, you’ll likely have more people to work with which means more emails, more IMs, more questions, more needs. So it’s really important to set up boundaries, and communicate those boundaries to others so you have time and space to do your own work, to think and to recharge. Here are a few examples:
Block off time on your calendar to do work. It’s a meeting free time for you to get stuff done without interruption, and if it’s on your calendar people will be less likely to schedule a meeting with you during that time.
Turn off notifications. Those pings and pop-ups are distracting and can pull you away from the work you need to focus on. So turn off as many of them as you can.
Decide when your work day officially starts and ends. The mandated hours might be 9am-5pm, but most people check emails well before 9am and well after 5pm. This not only eats into your personal time, but can keep you feeling stressed all day. I personally decided to stop checking work email at 8pm so I had time to wind down before bed, but I would check email early in the morning (around 6am) to make sure I was prepared for the day ahead and react to anything urgent. Find what’s right for you.
4 - Let go of self-doubt
You may not feel super confident in your role right now, and may even feel like an imposter at times. That’s completely normal whenever you’re taking on something new, and in this case you have a lot of new responsibilities on your plate. But confidence isn’t something you either have or don’t have, it’s built through action and by doing. So voice your opinions, ask questions, say “yes” to those new scary opportunities... the more you lean in, the more confident you’ll become.
Summary:
Ask questions, delegate more, set boundaries and stand tall. You got this!